The following was a statement that I wrote on 12-5-2025 on my personal Instagram and Bluesky accounts, and well as most of my numerous projects’ Facebook pages; I’m posting it on this page as well in good faith, and as a nod to the gracious and welcoming Ampwall team and community. I hope it clarifies my evolving and hardening stance on the issue, clarifies the past use of generative AI in many of my projects, and makes clear my commitment to not using AI on future releases/in future projects:

“Hey all! Matthew here. Most of you are familiar with some or all of my projects (Six Below Zero, Agony By Default, Underrot, Breath of Sindragosa, Silence Before the Storm, Days Long Gone, etc.).

I wanted to address a bit of an elephant in the room that's also been a hot topic in the music realm lately, and that's the use of generative AI in album art.

Full admission, I have absolutely used AI for album art in the past. Particularly in the early days of these projects and during times of financial strain, and before I really understood how far this shit was gonna go in general and what the implications, complications, and consequences of the AI craze were. Not just for music, but for society. For what it's worth, I'm not a big name and I just wanted to get my music out there.

I committed to not [knowingly] using AI album art any more in mid 2024. (I also have NEVER used AI for anything else.)

However, to my dismay, I have also found that the AI filters on places like Adobe Stock and other sites I've used resources from when creating digital art...well, they're apparently not very well enforced. I've recently run some of that stuff (things I already used) through multiple AI detectors and had much of it come back as likely AI or had mixed results. Fuck me, I guess.

Obviously some of my projects (Six Below Zero, for example) lend themselves well to basic photography and editing and that's a path I've already leaned into recently. For other projects, obviously I'm gonna have to go back to commissioning real art (because I suck ass at drawing). Which is fine and I've always preferred that anyway...I think we all do. But fans have to remember that quality shit costs money.

But that also brings up new discussions and challenges. I ran a bunch of Pär Ollofson's work through multiple AI detectors and the majority of it came back as "likely AI" in many of them. What the fuck? And we've all noticed we're in the stage of literally everything being accused of being AI by the general public.

So...the whole thing's fucked in general and I'm not sure how we put the cat back in the bag. But for my part, all I can do is be more wary of sourcing material. We live and learn.

I appreciate my small group of fans and y'all's support.”

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